In my third grade class, we usually end our year with an integrated Social Studies, Reading, and Writing unit where we learn about the different regions of and research different countries in Africa, but this past year we ran out of time and weren’t able to do a lot of the creative grouping or sharing of materials that characterize this unit. So instead we focused on learning more about Ethiopia as a class. We chose Ethiopia as Washington D.C. is home to the largest population of Ethiopian born people in the United States. There are also many Ethiopian Americans in and around D.C. In past years, we’ve ordered food from a local Eritrean restaurant as part of our end of year celebration, but this year we were sadly unable to do that.

We started our study of Ethiopia by looking at maps, watching short videos, and reading nonfiction books and articles together. Students had so many questions and wanted to see more, so we gave them time to work in pairs and enjoy this photo essay about Ethiopia from The Atlantic: Beauty and Color: Scenes From Ethiopia (the first photo is the cover photo for this post).

Students looked at the essays on their individual laptops (we had one laptop per pair or group of three), although it can also work to look at each photo together as a whole class. We wanted them to have more autonomy to spend time with the photos that really interested them as well as have small group discussions (which are difficult when everyone is sitting at their own desk six feet apart). As they looked at the photos, we had them fill out a See Think Wonder chart which we found here (also pictured above).

You can see one student’s work here. This student said he had more questions, but wasn’t sure how to write them down (phrase them) and also talked about them a lot with his group mates. We reminded students about the importance of being respectful if something is new or different for you and asked them for suggestions for what you could say in that situation (This is something new for me, this is different from what I’m used to, I notice, I used to think, but now I’m thinking..).

I learned this approach of having students research or gain information from photos from Tony Stead whom I was lucky enough to work with at a public school in NYC. He taught me so many new ways of approaching reading and writing nonfiction which I’ve used in Social Studies, Writing, and Reading lessons since. (This idea that I’m writing about would also work for Science, but I don’t teach Science in my current position as we have separate Science teachers/class at my school). Tony Stead has a different chart called a R.A.N. (Reading and Analyzing Nonfiction) chart that is a modified/improved version of a KWL chart (what you know, want to know, and what you’ve learned) that is also a wonderful tool for a longer research unit.

I’ve used this approach of looking at photos and observing, pondering, and wondering in many different ways. It’s also really helpful with current or historical events (we took a similar approach, but with a slightly different chart when learning about sit ins). Also, if you are interested in learning about the large Ethiopian population in and around Washington D.C., we loved this story by WAMU!

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I’ve always loved teaching Social Studies through inquiry. Start with questions students have, and then let them explore, research, and learn from there! This approach has led to biographical essays about inspirational historical and contemporary figures, case studies about different countries, companies, and Virginia Indian tribes, investigations into various holidays, and so much more. My hope is that teaching Social Studies through inquiry supports my students in continually learning about the world in a curious and open way.

Some essential parts of inquiry in Social Studies (for me) are:

Keep the final product open or at least open ended! There are so many ways to share what you learned - let students figure out the best way to do so and personalize it.
Encourage creativity! We asked our students for annotated illustrations of the Virginia Indian tribe they studied, and every single one of them interpreted that a different way.
Be clear that what you are learning is limited in scope and in perspective. Use a concrete example to show that sweeping statements about all individuals who share an identity (or other) trait don’t work. I often use my wearing glasses as an example of what is generally true, but not always true for people who wear glasses versus what I prefer. The concrete example helps students to see the fallacy of overgeneralized statements and they can suggest how to reframe or rephrase statements to avoid this. Some words and phrases my students brainstormed included: usually, sometimes, some, in this instance, this example, one possibility (and of course, there are more).
Always start with student questions! This is where inquiry begins - with asking a question. Keep in mind that students may need an introduction to a topic or some background knowledge before they can pose meaningful questions. Photographs, video and audio clips, and primary source documents are a great way to get students interested in a topic and give them some context to start asking questions.
Find out what students already know (or think they know) and act accordingly! Background knowledge is so important to learning and understanding. So is identifying and clearing up misconceptions. Skipping ahead to research and learning new information without engaging in this pre-inquiry step can lead to more confusion.

One example of an attempt to do many of these things was our Native American Studies unit with 5th graders. We started by asking students what they already know about Native Americans, and immediately needed to clear up confusion about names and proper terms (many of our students claimed that saying “Indians” was offensive). One way we did this was by taking a field trip to the wonderful National Museum of the American Indian here in DC. At the museum, our students were surprised to learn Native Americans are still very much present today.

Many of our students shared that the Disney movie, Pocahontas, came to mind when we first started learning about American Indians. So we took some time to delve into an investigation of Pocahontas and see how what we discovered connected with what we already learned and had questions about. Students were shocked to see how quickly they generalized from an animated movie with limited historical accuracy to all Native Americans.

Our takeaways from this information our students shared (and were missing) was that we needed to learn more about American Indians today! So we learned some new vocabulary and background information from documentaries, articles, stories, and more. We also learned about the Virginia Indian tribes as a concrete example of American Indians living near us right now.

Our final project for the unit was a case study! We gave students time and resources to learn about a Virginia Indian tribe. We started with questions like: what do you want to know? What are the 10 most important things to know & share about this tribe? How would you depict your understanding? Students wanted to know SO MANY THINGS! The Top 10 List was a really effective structured way to share their knowledge while allowing them to follow their own lines of curiosity. We also included an “annotated illustration” as something to share to allow creativity and freedom to express their learning in an unstructured (non-written) way. As you can see from one of our students’ finished products (cover photo), they had so much to share.

*An important disclaimer we started our case study work with was to remind students that our understanding is limited! We don’t know everything about an entire Virginia Indian tribe and couldn’t share it if we did.

The best way to do inquiry might vary from class to class and subject to subject, so these are just a few general guidelines we try to follow that have worked for us.